XCOM 2 Reviews - "Turns out Firaxis has been on Overwatch all along"

The review embargo for XCOM 2 expired about half an hour ago, and a bunch of reviews are already available. Things are looking pretty good! In addition to that, the video embargo expired as well so all of the people doing playthroughs and content on YouTube will have more stuff up today, if they don't already.

I'm probably going to avoid a lot of the videos this week just because I'd like to have some things be a surprise. Anyway, here are some of the first reviews:

Rock Paper Shotgun - Recommended - "XCOM 2 is an improvement on its predecessor in every way and the vast majority of those improvements have been applied so intelligently that they risk making Enemy Unknown obsolete."

Eurogamer - Essential - "XCOM 2 isn't a reworking of the original game, then - it's a genuine response to it. A response to us. Turns out Firaxis was on overwatch all along."

PC Gamer - 94/100 - "Exceptionally tough, rewarding strategy and a masterful reworking of the XCOM formula. We’ll play this forever."

The Escapist - 4.5/5 - "XCOM 2 improves on its predecessor in almost every way, and proudly stands as one of the most deeply satisfying action-strategy games currently available."

Game Informer - 9.5/10 - "Successfully navigating XCOM 2's storm of difficult choices is enough to make you feel like a true legend."

Gamespot - 9/10 - "Failure is not just a possibility in XCOM 2, it's a necessary presence. This is the rare game that's less about choices, and more about the consequences thereafter: we play, we learn, we strive to get better. The entire process is a stunning display of meaningful failure."

Polygon - 9/10 - "In spite of a few glaring technical issues, XCOM 2 represents a high water mark for the entire franchise."

IGN - 9.3/10 - "XCOM 2's excellent tactical combat is infused with enough randomness that it won't get old anytime soon."

Eurogamer Poland - 9/10 - "Firaxis has prepared a sequel perfect - better, larger and more impressive in many ways, which guarantees many hours of fun"

EGM - 75/100 - "At its best, XCOM 2 is an engaging experience unlike most other games, and despite all that’s been said, don’t take away it isn’t worth a look. There are true moments of enjoyment to be had, but the constant stress as resources dwindled or a squadmate gets taken out due to complete nonsense too often turns the game from exhilarating to exhausting."

MAXIMUM HYPE. friday can't come soon enough!

Awesome stuff, though not to shocked at the scores. Everything I've seen of XCOM 2 had me convinced this was the game I wanted the original to be.

Yep, it's reviewing incredibly well. It's great to hear that it's not one of the handful of 'bad' X-com games.

This might be one of the few games I buy at full price this year.

Awesome to hear, though can't say I'm surprised. Enemy Unknown was a fantastic modernization so they clearly know what they're doing.

I think I can interpret what Eurogamer is trying to say, but the sentence, "Firaxis has been on Overwatch all along" sounds way worse than they meant to make it sound. That implies they've been sitting on their asses waiting for aliens, which in this political cartoon is us the consumer, to make a move before taking a reaction shot, penalty included.

My body is ready - smart move to take off the coming week!

There's a few outliers, but the majority are in love as I expected they would be. The old jank is still there, but everything else seems to have improved by leaps and bounds.

Hell, I hope the few that say it's harder are right on the money. You snowball too easily in EU/EW, so the longer this game feels like the desperate resistance it's trying to convince me it is, the better.

@mirado: Yeah, I hope XCOM 2 is a bit more forgiving in the beginning and more difficult in the end. Unlike the opposite difficulty curve of EU/EW.

It seems like there's some jank here and there, but I imagine that being developed solely for PC will make for a smoother, more polished game than Enemy Unknown.

Man, I was gonna try and replay XCOM 1 on Ironman before I got this... But man... Those are some good reviews...

@l33t_haxor: I've been playing it for the last couple of weeks. I had a feeling that once XCOM 2 was released, I would never want to go back the previous game. I still don't think I'm going to finish this Long War campaign before Friday, though.

i wouldn't get your hopes up in that regard- i've read that the frame rate is uneven, and that all the jank of obstructed views, pixel hunting and corrupted saves is present. more or less consistent with the jagged edges of enemy unknown.

that said, it seems as though the game overcomes all that with sheer quality of gameplay. so i'm content to have to reload and save often if it means we get another great xcom.

I'm unbelievably sad that this game isn't coming to consoles. The first one was my favourite game of 2012.

...I couldn't resist anymore... pre purchased now and feel ashamed for it...

@pompouspizza: maybe they'll put it on IOS at some point like they did with the first one, I heard it was quite enjoyable to play it there; Thought it seems it doesn't need a beast of a PC to play, I mean the min specs are a core 2 duo and a GTX 460, don't you have any PC at all?

@pompouspizza: I'd expect a console version once the PC version makes profit.

@baronsamedi: Same here, I fully expect a console version at some point.

There will be console versions at some point, and i wouldn't doubt they do the Ipad/Tablet versions again either as well as they seemed to play on those devices. I'm still a bit disappointed at the lack of controller support at launch, but hopefully steam will have some good profiles for the controller(or i can come up with one myself fairly easily). The UI seems mostly the same, and i doubt it's a completely brand new engine

@onarum: Unfortunately I don't, I have a laptop that I know wouldn't run it.

Man I really hope this comes to consoles.

Dang my terrible laptop not being able to play this lovely game!

Fuck. I really want this despite knowing it'd do bad things to my time, but SFV is some 2 weeks away and I ain't buying both this month. If this doesn't run *at all* on my PC it'll make the choice a lot easier.

I CANNOT WAIT! Breathe... Just 4 more days. Very happy to see that the game so far is so well received.

Awesome, I waited until recently to finally play the first and its couple shortcomings were glaring. I'm curious about the technical issues Polygon mentions, sounds like the framerate struggles with certain actions? Sort of surprising with it being developed exclusively for PC?

Looks like for people who loved the original this is more of that good stuff. I just wonder if I'll be able to finish this one - kind of lost steam halfway through the original.

Hopefully this comes to console sometime. It looks great and Enemy Unknown was terrific.

I mean don't go crazy, there's like a 25% off coupon on GMG.

So ready. 4 more days, duders!

I don't think my laptop could run this very well, if at all. That upsets me.

Yaay time to actually finish a game of the original!

Where do you kids even find the time for these games get off my lawn etc.

Great to hear but man I never really got into Enemies Within. I feel like I should go back and play the expansion to the first before jumping head first into a new one.

God, my heart skipped a beat there when I thought that thread title was a negative. Can't wait!

@mysterious0bob: I agree that the reviewer quote in the thread title is bizarre, because I really don't think "[the developer] was on overwatch" has a clear connotation related to it. Are they keeping watch and on top of their game, or are they keeping watch and merely standing guard, offering more of the same?

Going to still have some of the problems the last game had like with the RNG. Any reason why they couldnt physically render and simulate the projectiles instead of rolling dice? If games from the 90's can do it like Homeworld and the original XCOM it cant be much a problem for modern machines. Ah well, it still looks really fun and with a bit more difficulty not to mention full mod support. That destruction on the explosives looks tasty too.

Any glaring problems been mentioned? I saw mention of framerate problems.

@bisonhero: I have to agree that I wasn't sure when I read "Firaxis has been on overwatch all along" if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

That being said, I'm psyched to get into this.

Got two paragraphs into the RPS review and realized I didn't want to know more. I've avoided a lot of video on this game already and I'm ready for everything to be a surprise, to blow me away. I love Xcom. This seems better. My only problem is that I'm self employed and this game comes out friday... (thursday night?)

Definitely do not watch any video of even the early parts of the campaign. I hear something happens towards the beginning of the game that many people won't want spoiled for them, so try to maintain your willpower to not watch all that YouTube content that was posted today.

@mike: Is it a snake with boobs?

@rethla: No that's a mod I'm working on, along with replacing the Ranger's sword with that giant purple dildo from Saint's Row and changing the Sectoids into Rainbow Dash.

No Macho Man Mutons?

I'm pretty sure it could be done, but having dice rolls seems to be a clear design decision. Without real aiming it would seem kinda weird to me if it wasn't a percentage, granted i haven't played homeworld or the original xcom ufo defense

I just hope it is not another bug hunt. And by that I mean, I am hoping I can play at least 2 mission in a row without some sort of graphical glitch, non-working paths or enemies appearing out of the blue.

edit:

"XCOM 2 appears to offer the same thing, visual glitches and all."

"For a start, most missions have some kind of timer to worry about."

OK. F**k that, I'll wait for the -75% sale.

You know, that is the one thing I'm concerned about. Timers in games are typically one of my least favorite things, but hopefully it isn't too bad. The comforting thing is that there will assuredly be a mod that extends or eliminates the timers.

I delayed my purchase in order to afford a Hitbox arcade "stick" and a copy of Street Fighter V...

BUT I WANT IT SO BAD IT HURTS

I hate to break it to you, but.. It's actually an exacerbated version of EU's difficulty curve, which a couple of reviews mention as one of the few negative aspects of this here sequel. This time around, it starts out very difficultly, and only gets a little bit easier as you progress through the game and unlock more options.

@do_the_manta_ray: That sounds OK. As long as the late game doesn't become trivially easy like it did in EU. I have faith though, even with all of EU's problems it is still my favorite strategy game ever. Even so, there are always mods to fix problems like that or at least make them not so severe.

This year is already off to an amazing start with XCOM 2 and The Witness. Before I get around to them, I just need to play a bunch of 2015 games first.

I was expecting this game to be good but those reviews are way better than I anticipated.

There are so many good games releasing and it's barely the end of January. I bought 2 games the whole of 2015 and I've already blasted past that this year.